Engage Your Creative Side: Learn To Draw

A couple of weeks ago (or more, depending on when I decide to set the publication timestamp), a post from David Seah ran through my content stream about How to Draw a Frog. That post sent me on a serious nostalgia trip and resulted in a spending spree at Amazon. The net result is exactly what David says, "For about an hour I felt like a little kid again, aglow with the joy of being creative just for the sake of it."

Given the brain benefits all the cool neurologists say we get from actively using all of the parts of our brain, a little bit of right-brain creativity in the form of drawing and doodling would probably do all of us a lot of good. However, most adults are intimidated by "drawing" as serious art or needing talent. However, this kind of drawing is a great lifehack as far as I'm concerned. You won't win any awards for photorealistic renderings in charcoal, but for a few bucks on paper and pencil and 15 minutes a day, you can learn to draw little cartoons easily.

The center of my little flashback was the drawing method from Mark Kistler. I was introduced to his style of 3-D drawing in 1984 or so (I'm part of the batch of kids he mentions on his site from 20-25 years ago). It was in Mr. Saint's 4th grade class. You'll actually probably read about that year in other places. That year was a pivotal year for a LOT of things for me (my first computer, my first software programming, model rocketry, my first "teacher as peer" education experience . . .). Anyway, Mr. Saint had the videos of Mark Kistler's "The Secret City" PBS series. We all learned to draw foreshortened circles and cubes, overlap and shade and just plain get excited about drawing and using our imaginations.

I hadn't thought about that stuff for who knows how long. But, one mention of drawing a quick frog and 20 year old memories are 20 minute fresh. The great thing is that you don't have to sit in Mr. Saint's 4th grade class to learn this way of drawing. You can see some of it on the web, get books relatively cheaply and otherwise indulge your inner creative child with his materials.

All of his stuff is aimed at elementary school kids. However, despite the targetting, it's some of the best overall instruction on any topic. It starts you with the basics and builds it up into really good stuff.

You can start with a few quick lessons on one of his websites at his School of Imagination. The best of his printed material is in a pair of books. One is over 300 individual drawing lessons and the other is the workbook with space to actually do the practicing in. Watch the page count on some of the other titles as many are 20-30 page thin titles. They're still good, but not as much bang for the buck. The main one: Drawing in 3-D has a good blend of really simple drawings and some that are much more complex than the lessons in his older books. He also makes much more use of vanishing points and other "left brain" principles in this one, while still retaining the right brain approach. As I flipped through this book (the last one to arrive), I was struck by how much he and his methods had improved over the 10 years between his previous big book and this one.

The 2 Best Kistler Books

Also recommended everywhere I looked (though not yet purchased). These were all actually recommended by Kistler (the author of the 2 above):

lifehack, drawing, creativity, learning, art, cartoon